The Music Manifesto's National Singing Programme, Sing Up, is well under way, with great singing activities going on all over the country. One of the key elements that makes Sing Up work is the network of Sing Up Area Leaders charged with coordinating vocal activity in their areas. We caught up with Bath and North Somerset Area Leader Kathleen Still to find out how she's getting on.
MM: Why did you want to become an Area Leader?
KS: I had recently left a lifetime of teaching primary school children and have always enjoyed singing and its value in creating a happy school.
What kind of work were you doing before?
I was headteacher of a village primary school in Bath and North East Somerset where I had been for nearly 20 years. I was also the music coordinator, special needs coordinator, maths coordinator and on occasions, caretaker, dinner supervisor, lollipop person etc. etc.
What does the role of Area Leader entail?
Basically it is about setting up and coordinating the training of a workforce dedicated to delivering a daily, quality singing experience to primary-aged children. However, how this happens varies depending on the areas we work in. In North Somerset and South Gloucestershire I am working closely with the music services setting up and delivering singing projects in those areas.
Additionally, there is the organisation of training days with high quality leaders from the Sing Up National Menu. And another important aspect of my role is sharing the wealth of expertise and ideas I am picking up from the number of people I am meeting. This is particularly rewarding and the teacher in me can't wait to use some of the ideas I have learnt.
What sort of needs do you have in your area and how do they differ from other parts of the country?
The area is quite rural and there are many small schools. Teachers therefore often have many subject responsibilities and there's no music specialist, or they employ someone to come in and teach music specifically. This means that music and singing is often removed from the everyday life in school. Any coming together for massed singing involves transport costs. I find I spend quite a lot of time travelling. I don't think the issues are very different to similar areas in other parts of the country although obviously my colleagues in nearby Bristol and others in big cities deal with very different needs.
Tell me some of the challenges you have discovered and how you are meeting them.
Starting just before Christmas when no-one in schools wanted to know! Getting people to listen and talk to me, including busy music services, and head teachers with a mass of other agendas and initiatives on their minds. You have to just keep plugging away and not giving up, start small and hope it will snowball. Offer yourself with some free training and a singing project to get a school started.
What new activities have you now implemented?
North Somerset music service are training pupils and dinner supervisors to teach playground songs and games to pupils at playtimes.
South Gloucestershire are mentoring two young musicians delivering a pilot songwriting project in their schools. The musicians in turn are training teachers to follow up and embed the project in their schools for subsequent years.
In Bath my approach is two tiered. The music service are at present planning a course for aspiring vocal leaders while I am encouraging school projects aimed at training children as song leaders to support teachers who lack singing confidence.
What sort of things will you be doing in the future?
Prefaced with 'finance willing'...
- Set up further training days in each of my unitary authorities (teachers are reluctant to travel far), hopefully three per year.
- Carrying out cluster-based initiatives in Bath and NE Somerset, homing in on pupils leading and mentoring and culminating in cluster singalongs.
- Enabling cross-authority sharing of training and expertise.
- Hopefully implementing a vocal leaders training course set up by Bath and NE Somerset music service.
- Supporting further co-projects in North Somerset and South Gloucestershire and ensuring that existing initiatives are sustained and replicated.
- Delivering a special schools training day in collaboration with Sing Up Bristol, responding to an identified need.
- Encouraging more schools to become Singing Schools.
Have you any identified any other practical or musical needs?
The need to include the entire age range of special schools in your remit, as they are mostly operating at a primary-aged level. And the targeting of parenting classes and pre-school groups with the importance of music, and singing in particular, and making it easier for them to be involved.
All the wonderful initiatives we are offering to children to be extended to adults! Opportunities for Community Sing Ups, not just at football and rugby matches. What would be good would be a special day in the year like Comic Relief with a repertoire of songs to be sung - just thought of that and my mind is already taking off!
For more info: www.singup.org